While a co-signer can give you the borrowing strength you need, this is a serious legal relationship that should be considered carefully. Your co-signer needs to be someone who will be approved by lenders, someone you trust, and someone who is willing to be involved in this agreement for the long haul.

Most people look to family or friends first. Although there are risks in this, there is a level of trust when you’re working with someone you have known for a long time. For married couples, a spouse typically acts as the co-signer for a mortgage. Sometimes parents, business partners, sisters, brothers, aunts, grandparents or long-trusted friends can help.

Your potential co-signer must have a strong credit history as well as good income. The co-signer must be at least 18 years of age and willing to have their income, credit history, credit score, assets and debts scrutinized by your potential lender. The bank will look at home ownership fees (insurance and maintenance) as well as tax costs, even if the co-signer will not reside on the property. If the main owner fails to make payments, not only is the co-signer financially responsible, but their credit history could suffer.

If you plan to use a co-signer, it’s best to have a formal contract that you both sign. It can serve as a protection for both of you and a reminder of the seriousness of this agreement. A real estate lawyer can help you and your co-signer draw up an agreement that specifies who will pay the bills, who will occupy the residence, and contingencies, like what happens if the main mortgage holder cannot make the payments. While you may not see the need to make this sort of formal arrangement with a family member, this document can serve as a record to keep the agreement on track long after the contract is signed. This contract can also help prevent worst-case scenarios. For example, a co-signer could use the property as collateral for another loan or could suddenly demand full ownership of your home or 50 percent of the property’s value.

Co-signing can be a great way to get into a home, but it requires a major commitment from both parties. Before you ask for a co-signer, be certain that you are financially prepared for home ownership. Ideally, the co-signer should never have to hear from the bank after the papers are signed.

Deena Weinberg contributed to this article.

The post The Responsibilities of a Co-Signer appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

As a result of these agreements, Move will also now be able to provide consumers with extensive market data updated in real time for Chicago, Boston and San Francisco provided directly by these MLSs, including: sold property data with attribution display for the listing agent/broker and the buyer’s agent/broker.

The Chicago, Boston and San Francisco housing markets are several of the most-searched and fastest-moving in the country. MRED (Chicago, IL) is the largest MLS nationally, based on number of listings and the third largest MLS in membership size.  It represents nearly 40,000 brokers and agents with over 75,500 listings. MLS PIN (Boston, MA) is one of the ten largest MLSs based on listings count, with over 38,500 active listings. It covers Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and other areas of New England and supports more than 28,700 customers. SFAR (San Francisco, CA) is ranked in the top third of MLSs in the nation. It has more than 2,839 members and represents more than 3,575 listings.

“Real estate professionals around the country and particularly in extremely competitive markets like Chicago, Boston and San Francisco depend on quick and easy access to robust neighborhood information in order to make recommendations to their clients.” said Steve Berkowitz CEO of Move.

The post Sold Data In Three Major Markets Comes to realtor.com appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

1. Sell first, then buy. This is perhaps the safest plan, but it calls for multiple moves. In this scenario, you list your home and complete the transaction before purchasing another home. When you sell your home, you put the bulk of your belongings in storage and live in a temporary rental or, if possible, enter into a rent-back deal with your home’s new owner. The advantage of this method is that you know exactly how much you can spend on a new home, and you don’t have to worry about temporary financing. Also, without another home waiting in the wings, you’ll be less tempted to drop the price or to take the first offer that is below the asking price. The disadvantage is that it is a disruptive experience, and you could be displaced for a while if you are home-shopping for a long time.

2. Buy first, then sell. This strategy minimizes disruption. You can move into your new place at your leisure and then take time to prepare your home for sale. The major disadvantage is that, depending on how fast your old home sells, you could be shouldering the burden of two mortgages for some time. You are also responsible for maintenance and security on the vacant home. This scenario works best if your first home is already paid off.

A variation of this plan is to buy a new home with the plan to rent out the old one for a year. This buys you some time with money coming in, but being a landlord comes with its own stresses and responsibilities. You may also need to repair or renovate the home after it has served as a rental.

3. Buy and sell simultaneously. To execute this plan, you need to prepare for all contingencies and to know that if your timing is off, you will face one of the two scenarios listed above. The trickiest bit can be timing the financial burden. One option is bridge financing. This enables you to own two homes for a short amount of time. To do this, you need to either borrow money from family or obtain a short-term loan from a bank or other lending institution to span the time period between when you close on your new home and sell your old one. In essence, you are getting a short-term home-equity loan, also known as a HELOC, a Home Equity Line of Credit, on your present house and using it as a down payment on your new house. You then repay the loan when you sell your first home. It is not easy to qualify for a conventional bridge loan, since you have to demonstrate that you have enough money to pay for both mortgages for an indefinite period of time.

Experts advise applying for the HELOC well before you buy a new house. That way most of the credit on the line is unused until you actually need it. Lenders don’t like a HELOC that works only for a very short time, and it’s a challenge to get a HELOC if your present home is on the market.

Try to schedule the closing date on the sale of your old home after the closing date on the home you buy. In this way, you can stay in your present home until you move into your new home. Otherwise, you can attempt to negotiate a rent-back arrangement.

There is no right answer in choosing any of these scenarios. Your Realtor may be able to advise which is best, depending on the local market. However, much depends on your financial stability, as well as your tolerance for risk or disruption.

Herbert J. Cohen contributed to this article.

The post How to Sell Your Home and Buy Another at the Same Time appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

Methods of obtaining debt-consolidating loans offer varying levels of effectiveness, so it’s important to shop around. Generally, financial experts advise against debt-consolidation companies. They may offer a quick solution, but often they are costly and unnecessary.

Debt-consolidation companies offer alluring solutions, as they offer to do all the hard work. They promise to roll up all your loans into one, replacing multiple loans with one low monthly payment. But you can call your creditors yourself and ask them to reduce your interest rate or to extend the repayment period. Often credit card companies will accommodate customer requests to ease payment, because they want to keep the business.

Another way to consolidate debt is to transfer balances from one credit card account to another with a lower interest rate. Credit card companies offer low- or no-interest balance transfers to new customers to get them to sign up. Transfer fees can be high, up to 3 percent of the amount transferred, so if the sum transferred is large, the fee can drastically affect your savings. Also, the low interest rate is often a short-term proposition, typically from 6-12 months. When the period ends, the interest rate jumps back up, so if you haven’t paid off a significant amount of the balance by then, you may end up back where you started. Also, balance transfers can impact your credit score. Opening many new accounts at once can make you look like a bad credit risk. It’s important not to cancel old credit cards, even if you transfer the balance, because you may end up shortening the length of your credit history.

If you already own a home, you may be able to use a home-equity loan to zap your credit card debt. Accessing the equity in your home is an excellent way of consolidating debt. You can open a home-equity line of credit (HELOC) or take a home-equity loan, both of which usually have low interest rates. You can use the home-equity money to repay credit card debt. Interest on your mortgage debt is tax deductible. Some experts recommend against using home equity to repay other debts, because it can put your home at risk. If you borrow money against the house and you are unable to repay the loan, you might lose your house. Refinancing a mortgage is another way of tapping into your home’s equity. You can take advantage of low interest rates with “cash-out” refinancing, which simultaneously provides needed cash and reduces the interest rate on your mortgage. The drawback of refinancing is that it reduces your equity in your property and lengthens your mortgage repayment period.

If you do not have equity in a house, taking out a loan is your next-best option. Borrowers with fairly good credit can qualify for a bank or credit union loan. Interest rates can exceed 10 percent, but that is still considerably lower than most credit cards’ rates.

Once you have established the new loan and paid off your credit card debt, be sure to pay each monthly installment in full. The goal is to eventually reduce your total loan liability so that you get on the road to financial freedom.

Gilan Gertz contributed to this article.

The post How to Consolidate Your Credit Card Debt appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

• Unpaid debts can be deducted from your tax refund [Inman] – Tax tips for those who owe.
• Exploring the Amazing Abandoned Sea Forts of World War II [Gizmodo] – A collection of nautical military structures from days past.
• Bosh talks of enduring stay, wants to remain in Miami [Sun-Sentinal] – As the NBA Finals play on, Chris Bosh may have listed his swank Miami manse.
• 29 Gorgeous Castles From Around the World [BuzzFeed] – A photo essay of incredible castles, keeps and strongholds.
• Water amenities that quench a thirst for fun [Chicago Tribune] – As the heat rises, so does activity at the neighborhood watering hole.
• David Siegel’s Versailles mansion to be completed in 2015 [Business Journal] – Will the 90,000-square-foot Versailles ever be completed?
• MTV Architecture: Famous Buildings in Music Videos [Architizer] – An architectural tour through music video nostalgia.
• You and a Mallet Turn This Cube Into a Chair [Co.Design] – Metal box + aggression = modern furnishing.
• Lofty Inspiration: Elevated Home Offices [Apartment Therapy] – Lofted lofts stretch sky-high for a different kind of working environment.
• Living and Painting in a Converted 1870 Woolen Mill [houzz] – An old wool mill has a new lease on life as a home and artist’s studio.
• Retrospective: The Incredible Inflatable Architecture of the 1960s [Architizer] – Radical ideas on balloon structures.
• The Point of Crowdfunded Real Estate Isn’t to Make Everyone Rich [The Atlantic] – How crowdfunded real estate will change the direction of neighborhoods.
• Incredible New Tree Sculptures at the Palace of Versailles [My Modern Met] – The Palace of Versailles’ new sculptures pay homage to natural materials, but with a twist.
• Most Expensive Listing in Palm Beach Sells at a 43% Discount [WSJ] – Once offered for $74 million, this Palm Beach mansion recently sold for $43 million.
• 10 Rooms With Nautical Map Decor [Remodelista] – Set sail in your own home with these design ideas straight from the shipyard.
• 28 Wind Tunnels That Will Blow You Away [Gizmodo] – Feel the e-breeze with these examples of aerospace technology.

The post Saturday Morning Roundup: Abandoned Sea Forts, Crowdfunded Real Estate and More appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

So what’s the best barometer of a home’s true worth? Simple: the amount a ready, willing and able buyer is willing to pay at any given point in time. Unfortunately, appraisal estimates can be skewed, especially when not all the home repairs and improvements are taken into consideration. This is why you should weigh all home improvement decisions carefully before you commit.

When You’re Refinancing

Unlike in years past, the weight of an appraisal to determine the home value for the purposes of refinancing a mortgage is based upon the facts (which are primarily based on other homes that have sold) and what the property description is.

Improvements that may help a refinance valuation:

• Additional bedroom or bathroom
• Addition to the lot size
• Addition to the garage
• Improvement that expands the “use” of the home

When it comes to improvements such as landscaping, painting, any home improvement more “cosmetic” in nature, realize that the primary benefit is for the enjoyment of the property, not for trying to influence value.

When Selling

A home buyer is going to take into consideration all of the facts associated with the property, location, lot size, square footage, bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as additional cosmetic improvements that have been done that add to the look and feel of the home.

Improvements that may help a sale price:

• New paint job
• Freshly maintained landscaping
• Remodeled and/or upgraded interior
• Deck and/or patio addition
• Additional bedroom or bathroom
• Addition to the lot size
• Addition to the garage

What’s the Biggest Bang for Your Buck?

These include the high-ticket items that increase square footage. An additional bedroom or an additional bathroom increases the square footage, which in turn allows an appraiser to make higher adjustments when determining valuation against other comparable homes around the subject property.

Refinancing
Let’s say you have funds ready for possibly improving your home for long-term enjoyment. Instead of using the funds to make home improvements in an attempt to enjoy your home more, you might actually see a greater benefit if you used that money toward a refinance. Over time, the money you save from refinancing could then be put toward those home improvements down the road.

Selling in the Near Future

Typically, you won’t get a dollar-for-dollar recapture on the home improvement cost, even when selling. Because the weight is given to improvements that expand the use of the house (i.e. bedroom, bathrooms, etc.), it’s more common to expect 20 cents on the dollar, or maybe 30 cents on the dollar, depending on the improvement in such a scenario. Because the market is the strongest indicator of price, the market will dictate sales price followed by additional improvements and subsequent marketing of the home.

Related Links:

Can You Really Get Your Credit Score for Free?

5 Reasons to Refinance Now

How Refinancing Can Affect Your Credit

The post Home Repairs to Do Before You Refinance appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed loan achieved a 14-month high and is closing in on the 4 percent mark. According to the latest survey by mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is up 0.07 percentage point from last week, climbing from 3.91 percent to 3.98 percent.

The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan also increased, moving to 3.1 percent from 3.03 percent. The 15-year fixed is now the highest it’s been since April. The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan previously achieved a historic low in early May when it dipped to 2.56 percent, the lowest it had been since November.

“Fixed mortgage rates crept up further this week following a solid employment report for May,” Frank E. Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a release. “The economy added 175,000 new jobs, and the number of discouraged workers fell by 780,000 to the fewest since September 2009.”

Hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages were relatively steady this week. The average on the five-year ARM rose slightly to 2.79 percent, up from 2.74 percent a week ago. Comparatively, the average on a one-year ARM remained static week over week at 2.58 percent.

With fixed-rate mortgages on the rise, adjustable-rate mortgages are expected to gain in popularity, especially among home owners wanting to refinance and lock in a low rate. Nothaft indicated this trend is already happening: ARM applications have jumped to 17 percent from 13 percent since the start of May.

Mortgage expert Al Bowman points to the Commerce Department’s retail sales data for May as an indicator for the strength of the economy and where mortgage rates are headed:

The Commerce Department gave us this morning’s big news with the release of May’s Retail Sales data early this morning. They announced a 0.6% percent increase in retail-level sales last month that exceeded forecasts of a 0.3% rise. This means that consumers spent more than expected, making the data negative for the bond market and mortgage rates because consumer spending makes up so much of our overall economy. Softening the news a bit was a secondary reading that excludes larger and more volatile auto transactions. It showed a 0.3% increase, matching analysts’ forecasts. Still, the data points towards stronger economic activity, so we need to consider it bad news for mortgage rates.

Increased consumer spending may continue the upward trend for mortgage rates, but the general sentiment is that rates will fall in the coming weeks. In the latest Mortgage Rate Trend Index by Bankrate.com, 91 percent of the mortgage experts polled believe rates will fall or remain unchanged over the next week. “We should be establishing a bullish (higher prices, lower yields) daily technical cycle, which will last a couple of weeks,” opines Dick Lepre, a senior loan officer at RPM Mortgage. “The longer-term picture — to the end of the year — is still bearish (lower prices, higher yields). “

The post Mortgage Rates Close In on 4 Percent appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

The old adage in real estate is — and always will be — location, location, location. A property can be upgraded to satisfy your HGTV aspirations or personal tastes, but the neighborhood will define how you enjoy your home for years to come. Your independent research will require a significant amount of time, since your Realtor can’t tell you where to live. So, how do you determine which neighborhood you want to live in? It depends.

Neighborhood Priorities

Everyone has a unique image of their neighborhood. Define that image so that your time will be spent on just picking the house. Here are a few of the most commonly researched neighborhood traits:

• School district – Education is important. Home is home, but it’s also an investment. A school district’s performance impacts housing prices, regardless of whether you have children. Besides, the bulk of your property taxes goes to maintaining schools.
• Commute – The average travel time to work in the United States is 25.4 minutes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. What is your ideal commute? Worse-case commute? Would you consider public transportation? If so, is there a mode of transportation, like rail, nearby?
• Shopping and restaurants – Don’t limit this to just malls with brand names or national restaurant chains. Are there convenience stores? Walkable downtown areas with night life?
• Parks and recreation – Are there places to go running or cycling? Dog parks (your pets need to socialize as well)? Rock-climbing gym? You can’t sit in front of your TV or play games on your smartphone all day.
• Mature, tree-lined sidewalks or newer developments with or without associations? – Mature neighborhoods probably won’t change, except for the rare razing and constructing of a new home on the lot. On the flip side, are there more developments scheduled to be built soon, which might affect roads, nature, schools and traffic?
• Crime – Safety is important. Call the local police department.

Walk It!

It’s great to have the entire housing inventory in the palm of your hand, using an app like the Realtor.com app, but you can’t experience an area without physically visiting and feeling the place out. There may be sections of the neighborhood that you would prefer over others. Prove to yourself that the hype you’re reading online and hearing from your friends about that up-and-coming neighborhood is true. And when you get there, park your car and walk. Do this at different points of the day, on different days.

When you have finally decided where to call home, contact your Realtor and start touring homes. Good hunting!

The post Best Practices for Checking Out Your New Neighborhood appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

As the spring homebuying season transitions into summer, some regions across the nation are seeing month-over-month inventories replenishing above usual seasonal patterns as sellers begin to respond to pent up demand. Many previously “hot” regional markets such as Sacramento and Stockton in California are in the process of balancing out, as surges in month-over-month listings begin to replenish depleted inventories.

“We are seeing large regional markets across the country leading the way to national recovery. These regions are acting as a microcosm for what’s slowly happening in the larger real estate market,” said Steve Berkowitz, chief executive officer of Move. “Overall, we’re seeing seller confidence beginning to respond to consumer demand. Nationally, there are more homes going on the market for a shorter amount of time. And this is happening in our hot markets on a much larger scale.”

In the U.S., May 2013 inventories rose by 5.82 percent over April 2013 and median list prices were 2.10 percent higher than April prices. Last year, realtor.com reported a 1.77 percent increase in inventory from April 2012 to May 2012 and a 0.48 percent increase in median list prices over April 2012. The May 2013 month-over-month increase in inventory signals the beginning of a less volatile market and a greater balance between supply and demand. In fact, this surge in inventory has spread to some East Coast markets including Daytona Beach, FL and Washington, D.C., whose inventories rose 21.97 percent and 12.64 percent respectively, month-over-month.

National Data:

• In May, the total number of single-family homes, condos, townhomes and co-ops for sale in the U.S. (1,852,740) increased by 5.82 percent month-over-month. On an annual basis, May 2013 inventory decreased by 10.11 percent; compared to a 14.10 percent year-over-year decrease in May 2012.
• The median list price ($199,000 for May 2013) rose by 2.10 percent over the month, and by 4.79 percent year-over-year.
• The median age of inventory of for sale listings (79) fell by approximately 13 percent in comparison to May of last year.

Local Data:

• May 2013 month-over-month inventories sprang up in some regions including: Stockton-Lodi, CA (37.06 percent increase); Sacramento, CA (35.18 percent increase); Daytona Beach, FL (21.97 percent increase); San Jose, CA (17.27 percent); Orange County, CA (16.50 percent); Anchorage, AK (16.06 percent); San Francisco, CA (14.87 percent); Oakland, CA (14.35 percent); Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV(VA) (12.64 percent) and Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (11.29 percent).
• California markets continue to lead the list of the country’s top performing housing markets in median list price increases, along with Phoenix, AZ; Detroit, MI; Reno, NV; Jacksonville, FL and Orlando, FL.
• The coastal areas of the Carolinas and Philadelphia, PA, continue to be on the list of the 10 areas with the longest time on market. However, Florida markets now account for half of these markets, with a median time on market that ranged from 105 to 119 days.

The post Regional Markets Leading Recovery as Supply Begins to Respond to Demand appeared first on realtor.com® blog.